The studies assembled in this volume focus on two issues:
firstly, the analysis and illustration of literary techniques employed by authors and compilers of the books of the Hebrew bible. In several instances, their development is followed into the early post-biblical Qumran writings and Apocrypha. Thus, the essays in this section relate to biblical literature qua literature, an issue which has especially attracted scholars in the field of recent times.
In a second group of essays, the author sets out to probe the interconnection of literature and society in biblical Israel. Literary patterns, foremost motifs, are analyzed in the attempt to extract from them facets of underlying conceptual or speculative thought.
Since biblical authors refrained, on the whole, from presenting systematically their world of ideas, the proposed evaluation of literary patterns may help in better gauging the conceptual universe of Israel in the biblical period.